This second marriage must have been difficult for Matilda.  She had been the feted Empress of Germany since, what, about age ten?  With a doting elderly husband who probably didn't bother her much in the bedroom, as there were no offspring from this union.  Finally freed by his death, she returned home to England, heir presumptive to the throne, only to be told in no uncertain terms that her chief usefulness was not to be queen, but as a marriage pawn to make a suitable match and breed up strong male heirs to the throne.  Packed off to Anjou to be greeted with a lusty fifteen-year-old bridegroom, demoted to mere Countess when she had been an Empress, deemed unfit by Henry I to be trained properly in the art of statecraft...I am sure Matilda had issues!

 

As Forever Amber has stated Eleanor was NOT the typical woman of her time. She was actually quite magnificent and was known to be quite an enchanting, lively beauty. I think with her temperament and lusty attitude sh would have quite happily taken Geoffrey as a lover. I also think that she taunted Henry with the idea of such an affair in their later years after love and lust had cooled into something more dangerous and insidious. Melanie